Sapporo-Style Ramen Recipe: 4 Tips for Making Sapporo Ramen

Sapporo ramen is a hearty Japanese noodle soup that features a rich broth seasoned with red miso, a paste made from fermented soybeans, and chukamen (fresh noodles). Sapporo ramen, named for the city of Hokkaido where it first rose to popularity, is sometimes known as miso ramen. Miso is one of three types of tare (seasoning) used to flavor ramen soup broth in Japan—the other two are shio (salt) and shōyu (soy sauce). Miso is a popular additive for vegetarian and vegan ramen broths since it adds umami flavor without animal products.

Japanese ramen starts with chicken stock or a soup base made from pork bones, seafood, or dashi, and the tare is typically added later so that one stock can yield multiple flavors. Adding the tare later in the cooking process allows the chefs at ramen shops to control the seasoning for each bowl of ramen.

Depending on the shop, toppings for Sapporo-style miso ramen include:

• Meat: Pork is the most common protein for miso soup, particularly ground pork, roast pork loin, or braised pork belly (chashu).
• Seafood: Seafood options for miso ramen include scallops, shrimp, or fish cake, which can help add an extra dimension of flavor to the broth.
• Veggies: Add fresh or stir-fried vegetables like bean sprouts, corn, leeks, menma (bamboo shoots), and green onions to round out your miso soup, which is occasionally served with a pat of butter for extra creaminess.

Miso ramen originated in Sapporo, the largest city on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, in the years after World War II. Credit for the style usually goes to one of the city’s ramen stalls-turned-restaurants, Aji-no-Sanpei, which put the variation on its menu in 1950.

By the 1960s, miso ramen had become a nationally beloved style alongside standards like shio ramen (seasoned with salt), shōyu ramen (seasoned with soy sauce), and tonkotsu ramen (pork broth). Other cities in Hokkaido known for their ramen are Hakodate, which favors shio-style ramen, and Asahikawa, which favors a shōyu-based broth.

Like any regional specialty, Sapporo-style ramen is all about the ingredients:

1. 1. Use fresh noodles. There’s no substitute for fresh noodles (chukamen) in a truly great bowl of ramen. Skip the instant noodles, and opt for a fresh (or dried) package of snappy, thick alkaline noodles to which the broth can cling.
2. 2. Use red miso paste. Sapporo ramen gets its bold umami from red miso, or aka miso, which has a longer fermentation time than white miso, giving it a deeper hue. As the color shifts to a rusty red (sometimes even black), the saltiness deepens, and the flavors increase in intensity. Red miso paste is available online or in Asian grocery stores.
3. 3. Chili paste options. Many recipes for miso ramen call for a Chinese-style chili bean paste called doubanjiang, a blend of fermented beans, chili peppers, and soybeans. The paste echoes the salty umami notes of the miso, while adding a warm kick to the broth. If you can’t find doubanjiang, Thai sambal oelek or Korean gochujang are the next best substitute.
4. 4. Prep toppings ahead of time. Ramen noodles cook quickly. To avoid soggy noodles, ensure your soup base and toppings are ready before cooking the noodles.